


Walk it off

by seri-kun (vanijane)



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: (or they can just be really close siblings), Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Avengers: Age of Ultron (Movie), Avengers: Age of Ultron (Movie) Spoilers, Brother-Sister Relationships, Everyone Needs A Hug, F/M, Fix-It, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Incest, M/M, Tony Feels, Tony Needs a Hug
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-26
Updated: 2015-04-26
Packaged: 2018-03-25 22:11:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,499
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3826855
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vanijane/pseuds/seri-kun
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Tear these things apart. Get hurt, hurt them back. Get killed, walk it off."<br/>
<br/>
<b>Major Age of Ultron Spoilers!</b></p>
            </blockquote>





	Walk it off

**Author's Note:**

> This contains **MAJOR MOVIE SPOILERS** so please turn back if you don't want to be spoiled.

* * *

_"Tear these things apart. Get hurt, hurt them back. Get killed, walk it off."_

* * *

The immediate aftermath of Ultron's destruction left the team in quite a shock. Though they were able to prevent the world from total destruction, it came not without personal losses. Pietro Maximoff died in protecting Hawkeye and a civilian child, it was heroic and even Wanda, in her near catatonic state, was proud of what her brother did.

The death and what it had done to Wanda hit Clint hard. Out of everyone on the team, he was sure he'd be the one going down first especially with how Tony was protected by his suit of armor while Thor, Captain America and Hulk  were just tanks all on their own and Natasha always managed to get out alive no matter the situation. He never expected he'd be rescued, either and by a snarky teenager he'd been fighting against all this time. He saw the state  Wanda was in when she'd woken up for the first time after the battle, she looked for her brother and when reality came back to her, everything in the infirmary broke. She'd been sedated but not after a long struggle.

"How is she?" Steve asked, coming beside Clint to stare at Wanda through the glass.

"Not good, Cap."

"It never is."

"Well." He shrugged and would've left it at that if the guilt wasn't eating at him. "He died saving me, Steve."

"Clint, it's not your fault."

"I know that but...he was just a kid, you know? A few years older than my kids and he's dead. And she's in wreck."

Steve was silent, not knowing what words to offer because there were no words to make things better. Instead he placed a firm hand on his comrade's shoulder then spoke only the truth, "it's a part of you now and you've got to find a way to work with it."

"Yeah," Clint answered after a while, not tearing his eyes off Wanda's unconscious form. He watched her, tried to imagine a life where he could only ever rely on just one person and vice versa. It was a small world against a big one and too fragile. He knew then what he had to do for the boy who lost his life for him, "yeah, work with it."

And when Wanda woke up crying and looking for her lost brother, Clint was there to hold her hand and tell her the story of how he saved lives.

* * *

He didn't have much time to get to know the twins but Tony knew he screwed them up as badly as the world and then there was Bruce's disappearance. He didn't say much about the latter but neither did Natasha and he could deal with his own thoughts for now. But Wanda was different-- she lashed out wild and loud. He watched her from the monitors, unable to bring himself down there to-- well, he didn't know what to do.

He'd read the data on the twins. Their history, how he'd been screwing with their lives for years now and how he'd been the reason they only ever had each other. It ate at him, he could've done something but everything always came back to him, taunting his inadequacy and even when he did something, he would royally screw up.

"Hey, you accepting company?" A voice interrupted his thoughts and Tony waved his hand tiredly, a gesture that welcomed Steve inside his office.

"How are you?" The Captain asked and Tony was glad he found some comfort in his voice.

"I'm... I'm alive," he finally settled with that but stared past Steve for a moment before looking up at the clean face of the Captain. "I'm alive but I might as well be dead."

"Don't say that," Steve scolded lightly and stepped closer, getting inside Tony's personal bubble without actually touching him. "You screwed up but we did everything we could to fix it."

Tony frowned and blinked before staring at the other, "you're only saying that to make me feel better. I know it's my fault, Steve. I screwed up big time. The world's going to know Tony Stark made that murder bot soon enough and we have to take the heat for all of that. Bruce is gone, I can't even-- how did I not even notice-- dammit. And we have a child down there strapped like a mental patient and sedated every time Clint tells her she's alone in this world-- I screwed up. I keep screwing up!"

"Tony, listen to me," his voice was firm but without sounding too commanding yet Tony was stubborn and looked away. "Tony, you screwed up. We all did, I should've seen it coming with how you and Bruce were in the lab. None of us knew Bruce was going to leave, we're all to blame for him, we forced him into this. And Wanda, we could've gotten them out, we could've done something more-- but you know that. We all screwed up. I should've known letting those untrained kids out there would've been wrong, but I told them to stay there. To  _walk it off_. I brought those kids and look what happened."

"Steve--"

"My point is-- all this was everyone's fault. We screwed up so don't, just  _please_  don't take it all on you."

They were quiet and Tony looked at Steve briefly before taking his hand, squeezing it tightly and just breathing it all in.

"I'm sorry."

"I'm sorry, too."

"Like you said, Cap, it’s not just your fault." Tony said after a while, knowing that the good Captain was blaming himself just as bad as he was.

Steve squeezed his hand, "yeah, I’m sorry. She’ll be okay, we’ll all be okay."

"Yeah." And Tony believed it because Steve was always right about that.

* * *

Thor sometimes joined Clint to watch over Wanda. In a way, it gave him some form of calmness but at the same time, it brought him painful memories. Not too long ago, he'd mourned over his brother and that had been interrupted when Steve and Tony needed help with HYDRA.

In a way, he knew how it felt to lose someone dear and close to you. He'd had to see Loki fall and die too many times, each time it struck him harder than anything and when Loki came back, his chest would soar like a thousand  suns. But this time for certainty he knew his brother was lost and he died nobly to protect him. Had he not been in a mission, had he not been raised a warrior, he may have lashed as much as Wanda but that was neither here nor there. He just understood the turmoil she was going through.

"Where is..." a voice called out weakly, followed by a gasp and Thor's head snapped up to see Wanda on the bed, tears already streaming down her eyes. "My brother...Pietro...he is-- he is--"

"Wanda," Thor called, coming to the side of her bed and placing a large hand over her forehead. "Wanda, control yourself. They will sedate you should you lose yourself again."

He saw her clench her fists and grit her teeth in an attempt to keep her control but slowly the room began to rattle. He spoke to her, tried to keep her here because she couldn't live in this painful loop forever.

"He died a hero, Wanda." He said, "he saved a life, there is not a death nobler than that. He is a fine warrior."

"I-- I-- my brother-- I need my brother--"

"He is with you, he will always be with you." And Wanda choked out a sob, calling her brother's name. The room shook violently but Thor stood his ground beside the wounded girl, holding her and keeping her here. Eventually she stopped, only quiet sobs coming from her before she had fallen back into unconsciousness.

* * *

Natasha found herself walking towards the room where Wanda was kept early that morning. The past few days, she had thrown herself to work and her thoughts of Bruce. Although she came into terms with it, she hasn't fully recovered from the incident. She pushed him and it had been too far and too deep of a hole. She was going to live with that consequence but she was going to keep looking for him, too.

A part of her hoped to see Wanda coming to terms with the loss of her brother. She knew what loss was from an early age and it wad never pretty nor easy. Wanda was young, vulnerable of mind but she couldn't be lost to this. Natasha had put off seeing the girl to deal with her own emotions but now she couldn't put it off any longer.

When she entered the room, she was surprised to find Wanda sitting on top of the bed with her knees pulled to her chest. Alarm bells rang in her head, Wanda was supposed to be restrained to lie on the bed. Carefully, Natasha approached the vulnerable girl, hoping not to startle her.

"Wanda?" She called the girl, voice low and gentle. The girl's head snapped up and looked at Natasha with wide, terrified eyes.

"I...I did something," the girl whispered, voice barely audible even in the quiet room. "I...I do not know how but--"

"Shhh, calm down, calm down," Natasha extended her hand and slowly laid it on Wanda's exposed shoulder before steeping closer to the girl. "Calm down and tell me what you did."

Wanda inhaled deeply, pulled her knees closer and faced Natasha. She made a motion to speak but not a coherent word came from her. Natasha sat beside her, hand rubbing up and down the younger girl's back to comfort and calm her.

"It's all right, just tell me."

"I--"

"Wanda, I have food--"

Natasha stared at the person standing infront of them carrying a plastic bag on one hand and a pack of food on the other. She didn't know what was going on and it took her sometime for the shock to disappear so she could piece out that this was probably what Wanda was afraid of telling her about.

"Pietro--"

"What's going on here?" Natasha asked, one hand on Wanda's back, the other over her hip where her gun rested.

Sensing the action, Wanda stopped the action, freezing Natasha's hand in place, "no! Do not hurt him! He is my brother--"

"He's supposed to be dead--"

"I know but--" Wanda stopped herself and looked to her brother. Natasha didn't miss how Pietro's jaw tightened and how they were too tense.

"All right," Natasha inhaled deeply and took her hand away from her gun, "would the two of you care to explain to me how this happened?"

"I--"

"Wanda."

"Pietro--" In an instant, Pietro had his sister in his arms. "Pietro, stop. Put me down."

"No, if you tell them they will use it."

"But--"

"Pietro, Wanda," Natasha called them, attempting to use a gentler tone, as she stood up. "Look, all of us, we have our stories. We have our own secrets and all of us, we understand and respect that. If you're not ready to tell any of us, then I won't force you. But you have to trust us to share your secret."

The twins looked at each other before Wanda turned back to Natasha, "Agent Romanoff, thank you. And we are sorry for this. But I assure you, our loyalty lies here with the Avengers."

And that was good enough for Natasha-- she couldn't force anyone against their will. Not after Bruce, not after how she'd pushed him just a little too far and he'd left. These children who had no one in the world but themselves, she  couldn't push them away. They needed to belong somewhere, and they belonged here with the Avengers.

As for the rest of the team, if she had to bodily block them from the twins then so be it.

* * *

Even as a child, long before his powers had been forced out of him, Pietro had always been moving as if he was unable to stand still for even a second. There were only a few times when he'd actually been still for long periods of time, the first had been to protect his sister from a bomb and for days, he'd covered her with his own body. His sister had always been precious to him, even more so after their parents' death and he'd come to realize he didn't mind being slow with her and only ever with her.

Wanda laid on the bed, pale and weak. She'd been in and out of consciousness since she brought him back from the dead. Pietro didn't like seeing his sister like this but he screwed up, he failed her and he died, left her alone and they had always promised to be together. He reached out to brush back strands of hair from her face and let his thumb linger on his cheek for a while.

She'd done something like this before but never this great. HYDRA was exploring her powers and wanted to see just how far she could use them. They found out she could not only use a form of telekinesis but alter probabilities in a way but they hadn't gotten far with the testing and the most his sister had ever done was to add more money into their bank accounts or undo broken glass. Even then, it exhausted Wanda to the extent that she had to sleep for at least half a day. Bringing him back, undoing his death, would have surely required more power and Pietro didn't want to think of the possibility of her dying on him because of it.

"Wanda," he whispered her name affectionately and leaned closer, pressing his lips to her forehead slowly. "Forgive me. I won't leave you again, I promise."

When he pulled away to look at her, she was already giving him a small smile. She held his hand on her cheek, squeezing his hand as she whispered, "forever, Pietro. You and me, forever."

Pietro smiled at her, his adorable Wanda. He wasn't going to screw up his second chance with her, not when she tried so hard to bring him back. This life, he owed it to his sister. He kissed her hand and watched her close her eyes, an apology soft on her lips.

"Rest, sister. I will be here when you wake up."

"Hold me, brother. Please?"

And he did so without any complaint, wasting not a second to lay beside her and wrap his arms around her, tucking her head under his chin. She adjusted her position, turning her body towards him to put an arm around him and slept with a smile on her face.

"I love you, Pietro."

He grinned, he missed hearing that. It'd been a while, especially with all the recent mess.

"I love you, Wanda."

**Author's Note:**

> So I have been angsting for three/four days now over what happened to Pietro since he was the number one reason why I was dying to watch the movie (and next came Wanda) during opening day. SO. YEAH. I hope he comes back alive like Coulson. *begs* **#PietroLives**


End file.
